TL;DR
On the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene, a web developer recounts struggling to load emergency information on mobile as power and cellular infrastructure failed. A simple bulleted email proved far more useful than bloated websites, prompting a call to prioritize basic performance, accessibility, and clear content for crisis situations.
What happened
When Hurricane Helene hit Western North Carolina, widespread flooding and downed trees left many people without power for weeks and damaged numerous cell towers, severely limiting mobile connectivity. In the days after the storm, attempts to reach government and emergency websites often stalled: pages timed out, interactive maps failed with API errors, and heavy media assets or slow-loading scripts blocked access to essential details like road closures. A local county eventually offered a “faster loading” experience, but many sites still relied on large files, image carousels, or circular navigation that hindered users on weak connections. By contrast, a daily email from a state representative that listed food, shelter, utilities, and service updates in a plain bulleted format proved most useful for residents. The author also ran PageSpeed Insights on a problematic government site and recorded low performance scores, reinforcing the point that simpler, faster content can be crucial during emergencies.
Why it matters
- Emergency information must be reachable on poor or intermittent mobile connections; heavy web pages can block life-saving details.
- Mobile-first performance affects everyday use in rural or low-coverage areas, not just during disasters.
- Organizations with significant resources — government, utilities, healthcare — still publish slow or nonresponsive sites, undermining public service.
- Prioritizing basic content structure, smaller assets, and accessibility improves both crisis response and regular user experience.
Key facts
- The piece reflects on the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene and its effects in Western North Carolina.
- Power outages lasted weeks in places due to downed trees, and many cell towers were damaged, reducing mobile access.
- The author experienced repeated timeouts, slow loaders, and partial page loads when trying to access emergency and government sites.
- An interactive government map failed with an API error, obscuring road closure details such as a highway blocked by a landslide.
- A daily bulleted email newsletter from a state representative provided the clearest and most actionable information during outages.
- A local county later offered a “faster loading” experience after the storm.
- A PageSpeed Insights run on a troublesome government site returned low performance scores (40/100 and 26/100).
- Examples of common issues noted: oversized PDFs for basic info, nonresponsive insurance sites requiring pinch-zoom, and sites loading excessive media or many plugins.
What to watch next
- Whether local and state agencies formalize lightweight, plain-text emergency pages for outages (not confirmed in the source).
- If municipalities begin to run and publish routine performance audits for critical public sites (not confirmed in the source).
- Adoption rates of performance-first architectures or content strategies by utilities, healthcare providers, and large companies (not confirmed in the source).
Quick glossary
- PageSpeed Insights: A Google tool that analyzes webpage performance and provides scores and suggestions to improve loading speed and user experience.
- First Contentful Paint (FCP): A performance metric that measures the time from navigation to when the browser renders the first bit of content from the DOM.
- Semantic HTML: Use of HTML elements that convey meaning (like <header>, <nav>, <main>, <article>) to improve accessibility and structure.
- Responsive design: An approach to web design that ensures pages adapt to different screen sizes and input methods so they remain usable on mobile devices.
- API failure: A situation where a backend service or interface does not respond correctly, preventing data or interactive features from loading on a site.
Reader FAQ
Did cell service fail during Hurricane Helene?
The source says many cell towers were damaged, leaving people with little to no access to mobile service.
Was a plain-text source the most useful information channel?
Yes; the author reports that a daily bulleted email from a state representative was the clearest, most actionable resource during outages.
Did the author measure website performance?
Yes; they ran Google PageSpeed Insights on one government site and recorded scores of 40/100 and 26/100.
Will agencies change how they build emergency pages?
not confirmed in the source
Are heavyweight sites the only problem cited?
No; the author also highlights issues with content organization, mobile responsiveness, accessibility, and unnecessary features that hinder access.
We recently passed the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene and its devastating impact on Western North Carolina. As a web developer, I am thinking again about my experience with the…
Sources
- During Helene, I just wanted a plain text website
- Text-only local news sites aid communities after Hurricane …
- Latakoo | Fast, Secure Video Transfer and Transcoding in the …
- Hurricane Helene After the Storm Messaging Resource …
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